Let me explain about this heading in my blog.  You will continue to see it for a year.  I am celebrating a big birthday this year - yes, the kind where the first number in the double digits changes.  I am not telling my age, but let's just say that for my new birthday year I will be doing 60 special things (things that are new or that I have not done in a long time that will be fun and adventurous) and plan to post them here on my blog throughout the year.  I can't take credit for coming up with this idea on my own.  I read about it and it sounded like an opportunity to look forward to the increase in years rather than experience some depression over it.  So, all the fun will be spread throughout the year and I will be sharing my adventures here on my blog.  Look for the heading with Birthday Grins & Giggles.  The items will be numbered as I do each one so hopefully there will be 60 completed by this time next year.

This first installment will be an unnumbered one, but I want to share a few thoughts on what I have done relating to this birthday.  First of all, I joined three fun groups with some of my internet friends.  (Isn't it amazing how we treasure our internet friends just like the ones we see face-to-face?)  I am in the Busy Bee Crafters Birthday Club.  We send a card and a tuck-in to each member in the group for her birthday and try to make sure at least one of the items is handmade.  There is the GardenWeb Quilting Forum Birthday Block Exchange.  I am actually the coordinator for that.  Each member picks a quilt block that he or she would like the others to make and the blocks get mailed to the birthday person in time for that birthday.  I selected a block called Dewey Dream and I will post a picture of my blocks later.  My third group is also on GardenWeb - but on the gardening side - and it is called the Birthday Buddy Swap and we send a card and some seeds to each other for our birthdays.  I obviously created a fun birthday experience for myself and I love sending the things to others in the groups so they can have a special birthday, too.

Keep reading because some of you can relate to this other part:  Thank goodness this first event happened before my birthday or I would have wondered about my choice in doing the special things for the year!  Over the weekend, my younger daughter and her husband met me and my husband midway between where we both live because I wanted to go ice skating as my birthday activity.  You can laugh at me if you like, but all I can say is if you could ice skate just fine many years ago, it does not mean you can do the same thing today!  I probably last skated about 15 years ago.  When I first stepped onto the ice I wondered why it seemed so much more slippery; I didn't remember it feeling like that.  I got around the rink once and had all my lower leg muscles so tensed to stay up that I wondered if ice skating was a good idea. I sat for awhile and went around some more and was finally able to relax my muscles some.  I kept going around the rink a few times and then resting a bit, etc.  I skated for about 2 hours that way.  Okay, here comes the bad part - I fell twice and that ice not only was slippery, but it was also hard!  Somehow I managed to get back on my feet and get my balance on my skates again after the first fall. (I have no idea how because at home I always need to hold onto something even when I am just tying to stand on my feet never mind ice skate blades!)  I skated some more and was not too sore and then I fell again.  The second fall really hurt. I fell forward and hit both elbows, both knees, and wrenched my shoulder really bad.  I couldn't get up from the ice that time - because of the pain, I think - and had to crawl to the edge to hold on to the side to get myself up (...and did I ever notice that I was probably the oldest person out there on the skating rink?)

Anyway, I am still moving today, although with some effort and pain.  I don't think anything is permanently damaged or broken.  It just amazes me that I totally thought I could skate just as well as I used to - isn't it like riding a bicycle, once you know how to do it, you can always do it?  (Well, I haven't tried to ride a bicycle in ages either...)

I wonder what my other birthday year adventures will hold in store for me?  I have decided to call this first birthday adventure a "pre-birthday adventure" and just a fluke - not really part of my "true" birthday year adventures.  It was great to see my daughter and son-in-law and I really appreciate that everyone went to so much effort so we could be together and do what I chose as my birthday celebration.  We went out to eat afterwards and I got presents and I guess it was good to do something that I had not done for a long time.  The downside was to see that I couldn't do it "just like I used to do."  
 
Anyway, I received this tag yesterday from the tag group that e-mails things to me and how perfect is this to go with that day?

Watch for more adventures!